Producer - Metropolitan Opera Presents
©2005 Robert Willey
RW: What does the “Media Deptartment” do at the Met?
SE: At most places “Media Dept.” is press, at the met it’s radio and TV. She runs the television division. She and the staff there work directly with Gary Halvoren and Brian Large. Vicki Warivonchik is her associate producer does a lot of the scripting.
RW: Is the producer’s role in video production like that in film – oversee business and financial decisions, select projects, approve development, select directors, negotiate contracts, coordinate activities, make sure things stay on schedule and within budget?
SE: The only difference is that we don’t approve developments, we just tape the operas, concerts, and galas, that part is already produced by the Met Opera house. I do all the business side, budgets, copyrights, photographs.
RW: The television is not live?
SE: We normally tape three performances and then edit. We’ve only done a couple of live shows.
RW: When do you decide to put something out on DVD?
SE: When someone makes us an offer (laughs). We’ve had about 99 telecasts, I think there’s about 50 out on video at the moment.
RW: Radio is cheaper to produce, that’s why there are more stations and productions? We get that program in Lafayette.
SE: Radio is a lot cheaper to produce. The house is wired for audio and video. Allen Godfry, the radio person, can tell you more about that. To do TV we have to bring in a truck to do master tapes, we don’t have a studio here. For audio we have a sound booth on the main tier hat was upgraded by Texaco some years ago. All the equipment you need for radio is already in the house.
RW: I’m not familiar with the difference between the two opera companies in New York. “Live From Lincoln Center” seems to use the New York City Opera for their broadcasts.
SE: “Live From Lincoln Center” televises work from other institutions. The Met started our own media program in 1977 with a series. We did that because it was easier to produce in house, considering the 55 people that have to be notified, the staging, set. It’s an enormous job. Our schedule is quite intense. There’s a different opera onstage almost every day, it’s different than what is rehearsed during the day, we have a matinee on Saturday. We have technical rehearsals, there’s not a lot of down time.
RW: Last year I had theory students analyze pieces that the orchestra was going to perform, and then they went into the booth and directed the media students’ camera angles. I’m trying to develop a theoretical foundation for how thoughts are chosen, to keep it from being a frivolous assignment. I talked to Kirk Browning, he does it for entertainment purposes. I’m trying to talk with as many directors as possible to see how they choose shots. Gary Halverson has a classical music background.
SE: Yes, but he hadn’t done anything for a very long time. Now he’s working with the SF Symphony doing orchestral things, it’s really quite nice.
RW: Do you think it’s important for a director for a project like this to be a musician? In Kirk’s case, while he can navigate a score, he thinks it’s perhaps an advantage not to be classically trained, then he doesn’t have an agenda or point of view in terms of what musicians would want to see, he does it for the average viewer.
SE: It depends on a lot of factors. Every stage production is different, it depends on who is doing it. Brian Large is a serious musician. To do a production with him is incredibly easy. Almost everything he does could go out live, though he does go back and edit. I don’t think your assignment is frivolous. There are very few people who can do live television in the performing arts. It’s a real art form. It’s very hard to do. You have to know everything that is going on several different cameras, visually, the story, everything you want to represent you have to do it right there. I have several directing friends that would never do live TV.
RW: People have been recording video for a long time at schools to play performances back for students and give them feedback about their progress. Now with the falling prices for camcorders and video editing systems you might as well has two or three cameras, but then you have to choose which angle to use. I thought that it was a way for students to apply their knowledge from one area to something new. It’s exciting for them to have a deadline. Even though it’s not being broadcast live it’s still a one time event, so you want to get the best thing you can.
SE: I’ll tell you the way we do it technically. We have a music associate, she’s the score reader for Gary or Brian. She’ll take a score and recording and break it out, making notes in the libretto in the score, not the translation of the lyrics that you can get in the opera shop. She’ll lay that out, generally broken down into musical lines. For that job you need a musician. Big spaces are left so that the director can write in the camera shots. Brian will sit down with the score and maybe a house tape (black and white, far away) of a rehearsal just to see the staging. He will watch and start plotting out everything. The Associate Director (AD) will generally transfer the notes to our camera script. Sometimes they’ll have a camera meeting before the first taping with the cameramen. Then we’ll tape a performance, during which Brian will tell people tighter or looser or whatever. Generally the AD is calling out the next shot so that Brian can sit back and watch. Brian may change the shot in the middle depending on what’s going on. He’ll take the tapes that evening and rescript it, the AD will make new camera scripts, and it starts all over again until the third taping.
RW: Do they use the audio recording from one entire show, and edit the video to that?
SE: As a general rule we’ll use most of the final taping with a little bit from the second to fix a note here or there. Mr. Levine, if he’s conducting, will let Jay Fax, the audio producer, and Brian Large know which parts went on a given evening. We can’t always edit just for sound, it is a visual medium.
RW: Does the conductor get involved very much with the video, or is he mostly concerned with the sound?
SE: When it’s Jimmy he gets involved, he watches everything. He’ll give us notes. Jay and Brian will tell him why they didn’t fix something if he asked for something to be. They’ve been working together for a long time. Some conductors, like Valery Gergiev, he’ll look at it but we don’t get a lot of comments. Sometimes stage directors like Elijah Moshinsky, Franco Zeffirelli, or DeCarlo Delmonico, sometimes they’ll get involved. Sometimes the singers want to see themselves, sometimes they don’t. Basically it comes down to Brian, Gary, or Kirk. They make the decisions, it’s up to them. But everyone works together.
RW: There seem to be more DVDs of operas than orchestra concerts out. Opera lends itself to video more, there is lighting, scenery, costumes, movement, makeup, a story.
SE: Shooting orchestras and making them interesting is a difficult thing to do. They’re just sitting there. There’s a lot more going on with a stage production. Some things that look great in the house don’t look good on TV, but some look fabulous.
RW: Also, opera has a lot a of material that can be incorporated into a DVD, like scene synopsis. It also solves the problem of whether the viewer wants to see subtitles or not, and they can even choose their own language.
SE: DVDs are doing well for us, it’s a wonderful medium for us.
RW: In addition to the theory work I’m interested in the technical aspects. Who makes your DVDs?
SE: We have about 18 titles with Pioneer and Paramount. Now we’re working with Deutsche Grammaphone and have 24 titles. They do the technical work and authoring in Hamburg, Germany. The LA Opera is thinking of doing releases under their own label. We like DG, they work under Universal Music.
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